The Right’s politico-cultural fight against the forming of an Islamic community center near the site of the World Trade Center attack shows disdain for the inherent American values of liberty and religious freedom.

There are a number of Tea-Party types entering the fray – Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin to name a couple. Newt in particular recently wrote on his blog:

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.
[source]

No, Mr. Gingrich. This is explicitly why the Cordoba Initiative planned center should be welcomed and helped to flourish in the shadow of America’s greatest terrorist tragedy.

As your pal George W. Bush used to exclaim, “they” (meaning the ‘evil-doers’) hate our freedom. Consequently it is this same freedom to practice one’s religion that should never be curbed. It is this same liberty to exchange religious and cultural dialogue that made America unique in the world. It is this same religious tolerance that helped lure (and continues to lure) generations of individuals across the globe to our shores.

UPDATE:

I came across this excellent refutation of Newt’s speech based upon historical inaccuracies.
http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/08/professor-newts-distorted-history.html

I have also ran into a quasi-political organization that expresses their objection to the Cordoba Initiative. They seem to be a clearing house for a lot of the xenophobic rhetoric being thrown around recently with regard to this issue.
http://sioaonline.com/